


#ThanksKinga

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: lovers from the moon [8]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Jonah gets a chance to show them movies for a change, Jonah is too good at reading them both, Kinga is trending on Twitter and she likes the attention, Kinga's new regime is pretty great actually, Max is terrible at keeping his own secrets, Multi, Turkey Day is a big thing in MSTie history, Twitter, Which means it's a big thing in Kinga and Max's personal history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 12:21:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12817410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Thanksgiving is six days after Kinga takes power. Six days is long enough for people to decide they like what she's brought to the table, though, especially when what she's brought to the table means that no one's going hungry this Turkey Day. Is it time for her to shift away from the supervillain label? Jonah thinks so, but she's less sure.





	#ThanksKinga

**Author's Note:**

> I was hoping to finish the Thanksgiving fic on Thanksgiving, but the Turkey Day marathon was ~12 hours of pure MST3K goodness and I couldn't write a word while it was going on. Here it is a day late, though!

The first days of Kinga’s new regime were spent nervously, waiting for retaliation from either within or without the country. The weekend was basically just an exercise in holding their collective breath, conferring with their allies and anticipating reactions to the foundational shift that was about to be realized on a national level. Kinga didn’t have much to do with the universal basic income system that Root’s team had constructed, nor the national registry that automatically generated an identification card for everyone in the nation regardless of prior legal status, but those new ID cards started showing up in people’s mailboxes bright and early on Monday. As soon as people realized that each of those cards was attached to a generous initial stipend, Kinga’s favorability ratings skyrocketed. Most people seemed to thoroughly enjoy the redistribution of wealth from billionaires back downward. The hashtag #RobinHoodEmpress started trending on Twitter very quickly.

Monday afternoon Kinga was at the U.N. to make her attempt to defuse international tensions that had built up due to tweets and rudeness. She spent twenty minutes walking back nearly every position the United States had taken in 2017, recommitting to the Paris Accords, signing on to every human rights resolution that had been voted against under an administration of bad actors. “I might be a supervillain, but my intention here is to save the world, not run it headlong into annihilation,” she said toward the end of her address, and the startled looks that went around the room as that was translated into every necessary language almost made her smile. “My methods are drastic, but I think it’s worth seeing what difference they make. I’m not offering hostilities to anyone. I’d just like to be left in peace to see what good I might be able to do.”

By Monday evening, that supervillain quote had saturated the Twittersphere and leaked into every late-night show’s monologue. “Did you have to call yourself a supervillain in front of the entire world?” Jonah asked a little despairingly after watching Colbert’s take on it. She gave him a blank look.

“What else should I call myself? It’s not like I’ve been subtle about what I am at any other point of my life.”

“If you’re trying to save the world, that’s not a supervillain thing to do,” he said.

“Executing most of the prior administration in cold blood was a supervillain thing to do,” Max said. “Doing the most important one on live camera, definitely a supervillain power move.”

“Half the country thinks I’m a witch for making the guns disappear,” she added.

“The other half thinks you’re a savior,” Jonah shot back. “You could at least try not to remind the global stage how you got here?”

“Jonah, sweetheart, it happened three days ago. No one’s about to forget it,” Max said.

“Okay, fair, but—”

“If you want me to rebrand myself, you’ve got to come up with a better brand than the one I’ve spent my life cultivating,” she said. “But I’m _very_ fond of my personal brand, so you’re really going to have to impress me.”

“Duly noted,” Jonah said, and he let the topic drop when she distracted him with kisses.

Tuesday seemed like a blur. Root had arranged for Kinga’s first press conference, complete with talking points about the new UBI system and national citizen registry, and Max and Jonah were both astounded by how comfortable and charming Kinga was behind the podium. 

“I’ve never seen her this confident in front of people before,” Max murmured where they were standing on the sidelines, and Jonah huffed a laugh.

“You’ve never seen her in a position of power in front of people before,” he pointed out. “Maybe it suits her. Maybe this is what she was meant to do.”

“She’d agree with that assessment,” Max said, and cast a thoughtful look at her. “Forrester destiny finally making good. It’s astonishing.” She was beaming when she walked away from the press conference and that good mood carried her for the rest of the day and most of the way through Wednesday, too. 

Wednesday was low-key in comparison. Kinga had an appointment with an OB-GYN in the morning, but the afternoon was vacant, no one really expecting much work to be done on the day before Thanksgiving. Dinnertime found the three of them sharing a room-service meal in their fancy penthouse suite.

“So what’s the plan for dinner tomorrow? Just going out to a restaurant?” Jonah asked. 

“I’m a little bummed I can’t cook this year,” Max said. “Thanksgiving has always been kind of a thing for us.”

“Turkey Day in Deep 13 was always a huge deal,” Kinga added. “Remember the year with the fifteen turkeys?”

“You mean the year I can’t think back on without being certain your dad had a feeder kink? I’ve been trying to forget it, but thanks for the reminder,” Max said dryly. 

“...wow, I think I’m going to hate you forever for pointing that out to me,” she said, looking vaguely ill. 

“If I have to suffer, so do you,” he said.

“That’s not the direction the suffering goes in this relationship,” she said, and Jonah snorted.

“A rare example of Max inflicting pain on us instead of the other way around,” he said.

“Sorry you got caught in the crossfire,” Max said, reaching for Jonah’s hand. “Anyways... usually I cook and we watch movies—”

“Good movies,” Kinga interjected.

“Yes, good movies, because you would always act annoyed when I made fun of the bad ones—”

“Because that’s not your job,” she said.

“We didn’t have a test subject.”

“We do now.”

“Excuse me,” Jonah said. “I think I deserve an official promotion from test subject given that I helped you overthrow the entire country.”

“I think you deserve a promotion because you agreed to marry us,” Max said. “The political coup is just gravy.”

“It won’t stop me from riffing, though,” Jonah said. “I have too much fun riffing.”

“We could do something unusual instead,” Kinga said. “I mean, the sky’s kind of the limit now.”

“We deserve a totally lazy day given what an insane week we’ve had. I’m okay with a day long movie marathon,” Jonah said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you consider to be good movies.”

“We have very different tastes,” Kinga said. 

“Wait, wait, let me guess.” Jonah put a finger to his lips thoughtfully, studying first Kinga and then Max with careful deliberation. “Romantic comedies with a fantasy bent,” he said, pointing at Max, who rolled his eyes.

“Like that’s a secret? Too easy,” Max said. “And I know you’ve looked through my shelves anyways. Figure her out and I’ll be impressed.”

“Okay, okay,” Jonah said, laughing. He pushed his glasses up his nose and gave Kinga a very intent stare. She made a face at him. “Female criminal revenge flicks,” he said. “The bloodier the better.”

“How dare you stereotype me so blatantly,” she said.

“Do you know how many times she’s made me watch Kill Bill?” Max asked. “Even knowing my low tolerance for gore?”

“I don’t force you to stay in the room,” she said blithely.

“I don’t think I would use the word force,” Max said. “But you do have a habit of putting your hand in my pants right before things get bloody.”

“And you almost always close your eyes when I do,” she said. “Which is why I do it. See, I don’t not care.”

“Now I have a Pavlovian response to that damn siren noise,” he said, and Jonah arched a brow.

“Oh really?”

“That’s not encouragement for you to test it out,” Max said hastily. “You should pick movies too, we know almost nothing about your tastes.”

“Guess,” Jonah said, laughing. “Out of curiosity.”

“Well, you’re really knowledgeable about practical effects,” Max said. “So probably not anything heavy on CGI.”

“I like well-done CGI,” Jonah said. “It just ages so poorly. A well done practical effect will look good forever.”

“We already know you’re a Star Wars fanboy from Tumblr,” Kinga said.

“You mean we know he has a crush on John Boyega from Tumblr,” Max said.

“They’re both true,” Jonah said. “But that’s not getting you any closer to my favorite genre.”

“It’s not science fiction?” Kinga asked.

“That’s way too broad, anyways a swing and a miss,” Jonah said. “Any other guesses?”

“Stop-motion animation,” Max said, and Jonah’s eyes narrowed. “What, is that actually it? I was just extrapolating practical effects to its furthest point.”

“No,” Jonah said. “That’s not my favorite genre. But it is top three.” He kept staring at Max suspiciously. “You know more than you should.”

“Full disclosure?” Max said, hands raised in innocence. “I may have looked through your entire Tumblr history.”

“That’s like six years,” Jonah said.

“You were out in space for three of them,” Max pointed out. “And it would be silly of me not to use every resource I have available.”

“I can respect that,” Jonah said, and Kinga snorted.

“Your doing exactly that is what landed us in this bizarre love triangle.”

“Oh, I’m well aware. It’s also what helped me save your life, so...”

“I’m not complaining,” she said. “But if we are doing a movie marathon tomorrow then I propose we keep our picks secret until we put them on. Just to keep it interesting.”

“I’m okay with that,” Max said.

“Yeah, me too,” Jonah agreed. “I think I should get to go first, since I’ve never gotten to show you a movie and you’ve shown me too many bad ones already.”

“Fair,” Kinga said. “I feel like I need to pick something I haven’t picked before now.”

“But I’m highly interested in checking out this Pavlovian training Max claims you’ve done on him,” Jonah said, and Max flushed.

“You don’t need the movie,” he said. “Just the sound clip. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I really don’t want to watch Kill Bill again.”

“Oh, in that case...” Jonah messed with his phone a second and pulled up that sound, making Max roll his eyes and huff a sigh as his flush deepened.

“If you’re going to rile me up you better be planning on taking advantage of me,” he said, and Jonah grinned.

“That is, in fact, the plan.” Not like he ever had a hard time turning Max on to begin with, but all the little weird tricks that Kinga and Max had with each other were absolutely fascinating to Jonah as he discovered them. Testing this particular trick kept them preoccupied for most of the rest of the night.

Thursday morning Kinga woke up last of the three of them to find her phone blowing up with Twitter mentions. Her name was trending, and when she came out of the bedroom she found Max and Jonah with wide eyes and their phones in their hands.

“People are thankful for _you_ ,” Max said. 

“For me specifically,” Kinga said in disbelief.

“You haven’t even been at this a week but your approval rating is sky high,” Jonah said. 

“I’m just taking credit for most of it,” she said, and Max snorted.

“They don’t know that. Oh, look at this one. _Explaining to my Trump loving relatives that we’re in better hands with a literal supervillain in charge #ThanksKinga_ ”

“ _Used UBI to buy insulin and food for Thanksgiving. Thought I’d be dead by this weekend. Nice to be wrong! #ThanksKinga_ ” Jonah read, and he grinned. “There’s a _lot_ of people talking about being able to buy food. Or pay their rents and not be homeless on December first. Or buy medicine.”

“Really?” She sat down heavily on the couch between them and started looking through tweets with her eyes going wider by the moment. “Holy shit, look at all of these...”

“ _The supervillain we needed and the hero we deserve. #RobinHoodEmpress #ThanksKinga_ ,” Max read. “These are amazing, people _love_ you.”

“Lots of people are calling you a hero,” Jonah said. 

“Lots of people are calling me a supervillain,” she shot back.

“Lots of people are doing both in the same tweet,” Max pointed out. “I don’t know, if you’re going to rebrand, it looks like people would be receptive to that.”

“Save it,” Kinga said. “I’m not even considering that before the wedding. I’ll let the two of you make me look better than I actually am.”

“Kinga... you’re doing good,” Jonah said. “You’re doing a _lot_ of good. You don’t need us to make you look better.”

“Maybe not, but you will anyways,” she said. “What do you think, will dropping that news on Black Friday put us at the top of the news cycle? Polyamorous empress announces that she’s going to marry both her lovers in a huge ceremony... gotta be more interesting than people trampling each other for discount TVs, right?”

“You’ve got it all,” Max said. “Policy and puff pieces in one pretty package.”

“Puff nothing,” she said. “This is policy too. It’s not like the two of you aren’t going to be very important to my administration.” She looked through Twitter for a little while longer and then abruptly put her phone down. “No. Okay. I’m not going to get obsessed with this. We had a plan, didn’t we? Room service and movies?”

“We did,” Jonah said, putting his phone down next to hers and taking her hands in his. “If that’s still what you want to do.”

“Of course it is,” she said. “Tweets don’t change anything. Let’s get some food up here and see what movie you’re inflicting on us first.”

“Inflicting,” he repeated with a frown. “Jeez, sound a little more excited about it, won’t you? I’m not trying to cause deep hurting here. I hope you’ll like it.” She rolled her eyes and leaned up to kiss his cheek. 

“Force of habit,” she said. “Didn’t mean it like that. C’mon, I’m starving, someone call room service.” By the time they got settled with brunch-type foods, Jonah wielded the remote to the gigantic suite TV while standing in front of it so they couldn’t see what he was doing, not sitting down until he’d gotten it past the selection screen.

“So what are we watching?” Max asked, waiting for him to unpause it.

“I thought you’d enjoy something with a really evil villainess,” he said. “So this is Coraline.”

“Ooh, you did go with stop-motion,” Max said.

“It’s a really good movie,” Jonah said. “Well, I hope you’ll both think so, anyways.”

By the time they called it quits for the night, they’d gone through Coraline (which Kinga enjoyed a lot more than she thought she would), Thelma and Louise (which Jonah looked smug about predicting), Stardust (Max thought it was appropriate to continue with the Neil Gaiman movies since Jonah had started that way), Inception (Jonah loved pointing out all of the practical effects that looked like they’d had to be CGI), and The Addams Family (which Kinga had been thinking about since the first time Jonah had compared her and Max to Morticia and Gomez). Max had dozed off with his head in Jonah’s lap before it was time for his second pick, and Kinga was pretending that she wasn’t most of the way to falling asleep against Jonah’s shoulder, but her overly-long blinks gave her away. Laughing quietly to himself, Jonah managed to get them both into the ridiculously large and luxurious bed they’d been sharing. Kinga immediately wrapped herself around Max, just as clingy as she was every night to one of them or the other, but Jonah liked it when she latched onto Max because that meant he got to hold onto both of them as he fell asleep.

“I’m thankful for the two of you,” Jonah murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of both of their heads before he laid his head on the pillow. All the reaction he got was a wordless murmur from Max. He’d tell them again in the morning, maybe.


End file.
